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Monday, September 30, 2013

Mark's parents, Jim & Julia Chandler, helped blaze the trail for the creation of The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, a global ministry
representing churches, denominations and millions of Christians
worldwide who share a love and concern for Israel and who seek to repair
the historic breach between the Church and the Jewish people. The Chandler's, centered in Jerusalem in the 70's and 80's, lead the very first intercessory prayer team and witnessed many miracles, ranging from instant miraculous healings to the prevention of an invasion of Israel.

The ICEJ recognizes the modern-day restoration of Israel to the faithfulness of
God to keep His ancient covenant promises to the Jewish people.

ICEJ's main objectives are:

To stand with Israel in practical expressions of support and friendship

To teach the Church worldwide regarding God’s purposes concerning Israel and to link churches with Israel

To support local churches in the Holy Land

To be an active channel of reconciliation between Jews, Arabs and Christians

From
their Jerusalem headquarters, the work of the Christian Embassy now reaches more than 140 countries, including established branch offices in
over 70 nations worldwide.

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Iran
is recruiting an “invisible army” of revolutionary sympathizers in Latin
America to infiltrate the U.S. through the “soft belly” of the southern border,
U.S. officials and national security experts told TheBlaze. And they’re using
one website in particular to do it.

The Iranian regime’s conversion efforts are becoming increasingly aggressive,
especially over the Internet, with the goal of conducting operations against
United States interests in the Western Hemisphere, according to U.S. government
officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the nature of their
work in the region.

Islamoriente.com, which focuses on
religion and politics, is one of Iran’s main recruitment and conversion
websites for Latin America on the Internet, TheBlaze has learned. The site,
which launched in 2008, includes links to Iranian television for Spanish
speakers, anti-American news stories, essays on reasons to convert to Islam,
chat rooms and a personal message from the Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, the
supreme leader of Iran.

Even as President Barack Obama waits for Congress to make a decision on Syria, the Iranian website wastes no time and has no shortage of stories ridiculing
the U.S. administration for threatening to strike President Bashar Assad’s
regime, a staunch ally of IraJim Phillips, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation and expert in
Iranian affairs, said Iran’s focus on Hispanic converts is a new evolution in
Iranian operations in Latin America. Phillips said Khamanei’s message titled
“The Importance of Work and the Nobility of the Worker” in Islam, is
significant because the Ayatollah is “normally a background player in these
sorts of efforts and doesn’t usually play such a public role.”
“Historically, Iran has tried to recruit agents from the Lebanese Shi’ite
diaspora in South America and West Africa,” Phillips said. ”This emphasis on
Hispanic converts is something new.”

In the past, “U.S. intelligence focused on Iran’s relationship with Hezbollah
but now with the people they are recruiting it could be much more difficult to
gauge who is infiltrating the U.S.,” Phillips added.

In August, the U.S. State Department decided to order a new review of Iranian
terror activity in Latin America, based on a 500-page report issued by
Argentinian prosecutor Alberto Nisman on Iran’s terrorist strategy in the
region. Nisman was the original prosecutor in the 1994 bombing of the Argentine
Israelite Mutual Association that killed 85 people and wounded hundreds more.
Nisman believes Hezbollah, on orders from Iran, was responsible for the
bombing.

The
reportstates that Iran has attempted to infiltrate “for decades, large
regions of Latin America, through the establishment of clandestine intelligence
stations and operative agents which are used to execute terrorist attacks when
the Iranian regime decides so, both directly or through its proxy, the
terrorist organization Hezbollah. These actions have been taking place within
the so-called ‘export of the revolution,’ which was never masked by Tehran and
is, in fact, written in their own constitution.”

Nisman’s report supports the evidence U.S. officials say they’ve found in the
region. Iran’s revolutionary guard is focused on Latin America and has ramped
up its efforts over the past decade, utilizing the same Internet tools they
censor and ban from their own citizens. It is ”part of their effort to build an
invisible army to penetrate the U.S. and our interests without suspicion, and
it’s something we should be extremely mindful of,” said a U.S. official
familiar with Iranian operations in Latin America.

The official said recent Iranian activity in Latin America shows the importance
of the region in Iran’s political and ideological goals. Those goals are not
only to cultivate anti-American sentiment in the region but also to build a
network of support among Latin American converts in positions of power, the
official said.

TheBlaze attempted to trace the domain and creators of the server hosting
IslamOriente.com but the site is protected by a privacy company based out of
the U.S. Attempts to call the number on the website led to a voice recording
from a telephone number out of Queensland, Australia, which said that the
website is protected by privacyprotect.org.

According to a 2012 report from the Middle East Media Research Project (MEMRI),
a think tank providing translation on video and Internet websites from the
Middle East, privacyprotect.org is one among many U.S. companies that are used
by Al Qaeda and other nefarious groups use to hide their information. MEMRI
also attempted to trace the Iranian website to no avail.

Ayelet Savyon, the director of the Iran desk for MEMRI, told TheBlaze that
Iranian activities seem to be focused more on recruiting from the local
populations with more sophisticated approaches.

“(Iran) is doing so in all parts of the world with the aim at targeting the
U.S. soft belly,” said Savyon, who is based in Israel. “Latin America is a
long-term goal for them with direct national security implications for the
U.S., and I do think it’s of special interest to the U.S.”

She referred to The Washington Post’s recent
report revealing how Iranian embassies in Latin America use cultural
attaches to recruit young impressionable students to special conversion
programs in Iran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who was elected in June to replace the openly
anti-American Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said in a recent public address that his
support for Latin America is strong. Rouhani told Vasquez Bucaro, the president
of the Central American Parliament and the head of Euro-Latin American
Parliamentary Assembly, that he welcomes increased interaction between the two
groups and Iran’s legislature to strengthen their relations.

“Just because Iran has a new president, that hasn’t changed their goals,”
Savyon said. “They are looking to recruit people who can support Iran’s
revolutionary values. Their agenda hasn’t changed, only thing that has changed
is the image they are trying to present to the world.”

A U.S. counterterrorism official said Iran’s activities are being closely
monitored by U.S. intelligence agencies and “there’s no question that Iran has
tried to cultivate ties with some of Latin America’s left-leaning governments.”

“As an element of this strategy, Tehran has mounted a charm offensive that
includes using Internet propaganda to influence public opinion in these
countries,” he added.

Another U.S. official, who has worked in Latin America for more than a decade,
said Iran has dedicated a large number of resources to recruiting and
converting people in Mexico, who have easier access to the U.S. border and can
easily blend in with other migrants crossing the border.

In 2009, six U.S. officials confirmed in an earlier investigation conducted by
this reporter that the designated terrorist group Hezbollah, which is supported
by the Iranian government, had been using the same narcotics routes used by
drug cartels into the U.S.

That has not changed but now “Iran’s goal is to recruit people that can be
utilized against U.S. interests” and blend in without raising suspicion, the
U.S. official said.

Hezbollah is based in Lebanon and was founded after the Israeli invasion of
Lebanon in 1982. It has grown into a major political, military and social
welfare organization, which is controlled and financed by Iran and in 2006, it
fought a 34-day war against Israel.

Hezbollah members and supporters have entered the U.S. through the southern
border as early as 2002, with the case of Salim Boughader Mucharrafille, a
Mexican of Lebanese descent. He was sentenced to 60 years in prison by Mexican
authorities on charges of organized crime and immigrant smuggling.
Mucharrafille had owned a cafe in the border city of Tijuana, near San Diego.
In 2002, he was arrested for smuggling 200 people into the the U.S., including
Hezbollah supporters, according to a 2009 Congressional report.

In 2005, Mahmoud Youssef Kourani, the brother of a Hezbollah chief, pleaded
guilty to providing material support to Hezbollah after being smuggled across
the U.S.-Mexico border and settling in Dearborn, Mich.

“Now what they desire is a proxy terrorist group that can easily slip past U.S.
border security,” the U.S. official added. “Who’s going to suspect an illegal
immigrant from Venezuela, Mexico, or anywhere else for that matter, of being a
jihadist?”

For another article about the growth of Islam in
South America, written by Muslim, read THIS

Monday, September 16, 2013

Recent reports indicate that enrollment in medical schools is substantially lower than previous years. The forecasts are that enrollment will plummet further after Obama-care goes into full swing. It is already causing a disconcerting exodus of practicing physicians.

Medical offices are shutting down due to massive complications in the filing of insurance claims and getting adequate payment to support medical businesses. Young people are dodging consideration of careers in the health industry. The time and cost of training against prospects of compensation are unattractive.

This matter should prompt Christians who are concerned for our nation’s welfare to begin praying for rectification. Within this, there is a need for those who have had anti-doctor and anti-modern medicine sentiments to repent of their unrealistic, counterproductive attitudes.

In regard to physical healing, multitudes of believers hold forth the ideal of that experienced by biblical characters and the dramatic healing accounts of the Early Church. That is well and good as long as they recognize the actual of most contemporary believers’ lives. Many fail to take into consideration how dependant we are on the skills of the medical community.

I am a strong advocate of healing from heaven. I can gratefully say that for decades I have seen positive results in my prayers for people afflicted with disease. The Lord has given me a particularly strong anointing to relieve pain. Throughout the years, there have been countless incidents where I have seen people instantly healed of headaches and skeletal, dental and internal organ pains. Many of the pains were generated by demonic powers.

Unquestionably, it is my conviction that God is the author of all healing. Within this, I acknowledge 2 facts: An uncomfortable percentage of those for whom I pray do not instantly receive miraculous healing of disease. And, an overwhelming percentage of those who found cure through my prayers also were under a doctor’s care and were taking prescribed medications. Many underwent surgical procedures to bring about healing.

Sobering Questions

I and all other proponents of faith healing could give reasonable arguments about why many are not healed by prayer alone. As we do so, inquiring minds might wonder to what extent we have realized health in our own lives without the help of the medical community.

·How many have teeth due to modern dentistry
and improved eyesight by the aid of optometrists?·What numbers consult doctors about onset of
sickness before calling for anointing by church elders?·With routine headaches, colds and sleepless
nights, is prayer the first response or, are pills automatically popped?·How many that speak suspicions about modern
medicine have undergone surgery and continually take prescribed medication to
stay alive?·What percentage of aged faith healers consume
medications for what is sore, dysfunctional and even missing from their bodies?

The Bible and Physicians

Jesus implied the worth of doctors in Mat 9:12 when he said that the sick need a physician. The Apostle Paul traveled with Dr. Luke. It would be naive to assert that he and the other apostles did not consult Luke about any physical ailments.

The Apocryphal book of Sirach is found in the Catholic Bible. Its 38th chapter speaks wisdom about the worth of physicians. What it has to say about doctors in relation to ongoing health does not conflict with the Protestant Bible.

Concerning Physicians and Health

Sirach (RSVCE) 38:1-15 "Honor the physician with the honor due him, according to your need of him, for the Lord created him; for healing comes from the Most High, and he will receive a gift from the king. The skill of the physician lifts up his head, and in the presence of great men he is admired. The Lord created medicines from the earth, and a sensible man will not despise them. Was not water made sweet with a tree in order that his power might be known? And he gave skill to men that he might be glorified in his marvelous works. By them he heals and takes away pain; the pharmacist makes of them a compound. His works will never be finished; and from him health is upon the face of the earth. My son, when you are sick do not be negligent, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you. Give up your faults and direct your hands aright, and cleanse your heart from all sin. Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice, and a memorial portion of fine flour, and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford. And give the physician his place, for the Lord created him; let him not leave you, for there is need of him. There is a time when success lies in the hands of physicians, for they too will pray to the Lord that he should grant them success in diagnosis and in healing, for the sake of preserving life. He who sins before his Maker, may he fall into the care of a physician."

American believers need to give a priority to praying for the availability of a sufficient number of doctors, nurses and medical research teams for our nation’s future welfare.

Thursday, September 12, 2013

In
the late 70's my folks were sent to Israel to bring the Gospel to the Jewish
people. In the ten or so years that they were there, they witnessed countless
miracles of God, including a 13 year old scoliosis victim's spine that went
from an 'S' to a straight line right in front of their eyes while my mother
prayed over her.

One of the things that pleased them so much was being a
part of the creation of the International Christian Embassy, Jerusalem,leading their first prayer team
and of the team that spearheaded the revival of the Feast of Tabernacles. When
I met with the executives from the ICEJ in April of this year, Susan Michael,
Director of the US Branch, told me that my folks were "like everybody's
parents" back then and that they were loved by all. The ICEJ has gone on
to grow into an International embassy representing Christians in all parts of
the world - quite a legacy.

This is a link to various videos from the current
Feast of Tabernacles. I hope you enjoy them...